This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
People with early to moderate Alzheimer's or Dementia suffer from both memory loss and the inability to operate complex devices. These people are often anxious about missing events or activities, or forgetting other time-based issues. Consequently, these people often write copious notes to themselves. The accumulation of notes results in another form of confusion because they forget which notes matter and when they matter.
Notes placed on calendars are not always effective because the current date and/or time are not always known. In fact, keeping track of today's date, which day of the week it is, or even what part of the day it is (e.g. morning vs. evening) can be challenging.
If the person with Alzheimer's does remember that an important event is coming up, but this event is still many days or weeks away, anxiety can set in because they remember the event, but not when it is. Or, they can mistakenly think the event is happening tomorrow, even it is not happening for several weeks away. Consequently, people get told the wrong information by this person and/or repeated phone calls are made by this person to friends or family asking about details of the event.
If the person with Alzheimer's needs to remember a periodic activity, such as taking pills at certain times of the day, the first challenge is to remember to take the pills. The second challenge is to remember that they took the pills after they have already done so. The third challenge is giving a remote friend or family member some indication that the pills were taken so that a reminder phone call could be made if not.
Friends and family that wish to remind this person about an event may try to add their own notes, if they happen to be visiting. But, again, these notes can add to the pile of other notes that often get ignored or forgotten. Further, if someone takes this person on a short trip, other people may not know about this trip and consequently wonder if this person is OK when the phone is not answered.
If the person with Alzheimer's is in an assisted living home, staff can put a reminder note in an obvious place on the day of an event; but, placing these notes requires labor and the note is still often ignored when it comes time for the event to start. Consequently, staff may have to visit the person again to remind them when it is time.
Thus in an age of accessibility, the idea of being able to have one's medical records, doctor's contact information and even one's calendar schedule at the click of a button seems commonplace. However, for the over five million people who suffer from mental diseases such as Alzheimer and dementia, such use of these commonplace conveniences is beyond reach. Such persons are incapable of utilizing the new technology and applications due to age or mental diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Individuals with impaired cognitive abilities have difficulty focusing and are easily confused, making it a challenge to interact with displays, computers, remote controls and many other daily objects/devices. Further, cognitively impaired individuals require the constant assistance of third parties (e.g. family members, friends, and other such caregivers) to perform simple day to day tasks.
Individuals with impaired cognitive abilities, herein referred to as patients, are not completely incapable of independent actions. Many are capable of getting dressed and feeding themselves, yet it may be the simple action of remembering to perform such an action that prevents them from living without the assistance of a third party.
Current market technologies include products such as portable data storage devices for medical records, emergency notification devices, portable medical monitoring system, daily calendar alerts, etc. However, all of these devices require the continuous action of a third party and/or are limited in their usage due to the patient's cognitive ability.
While third parties can assist people with impaired cognitive abilities to perform simple tasks (such as remembering events), there is a need to develop automatic solutions which assist people with varying levels of impaired cognitive abilities to perform and enjoy a variety of tasks and events in a natural and non-intrusive manner.